Julie Parker of Mallacoota leads the grassroots protest in her remote Victorian coastal town against a contentious new development at a surf beach called Bastion Point. This week, after almost 30 years of divisive talk, the heavy machinery rolled in.

Her friend and active protester Melinda Beachem, 50, a sculptor, got to the beach at 4am on Tuesday, knowing construction work would start at 7am. She had already made an anchor point on a concrete block in the sand and had a steel pipe to put over her arm and lock herself in. She nestled underneath an odd little structure she had made - a ''tent'' built from cane, hessian and tissue paper in the shape of a fur seal.

When the excavators came, it was the first real work on the project - a paved road, a car park, boat ramp and breakwater - since discussions began in 1986. Those discussions have since involved Supreme Court action and accusations of political interference and vested interests in the small town seven hours east of Melbourne near the New South Wales border.

By this time next year, according to the $6.5 million project's master plan, the road and car park will be built, as will a 130-metre breakwater and boat ramp on the beach that overlooks the Croajingolong National Park. Surfers say the breakwater will cut into a popular wave, and the Victorian National Parks Association says the coastline will be destroyed.

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Yet on Tuesday at 7am, the workers fired up their diggers. The construction site - the beach - was fenced off but 60 protesters gathered.

''When I saw the machinery was moving onto the beach and there were no police, I was worried they would kill Melinda,'' Ms Parker said. She took off around the fence into the construction zone by wading though the ocean with her video camera.

As the machinery loomed closer to Ms Beachem, chained to concrete in the seal ''tent'', Ms Parker ran, shouting ''You can't do that! There's a person in there!''

Ms Parker stood between the excavators and the tent until she was taken away by police. Ms Beachem unlocked herself because she was scared.

Ms Parker hasn't been back to the beach, despite her Save Bastion Point group holding a 24-hour vigil at the gates. ''I'm emotionally drained,'' she said, but added: ''Further direct action is certainly on the cards.''

For many, including Ms Parker, one of the great sadnesses of the Bastion Point saga is that friendships in Mallacoota (population 1000) have been shattered. Tourism interests, abalone and fishing interests, and the East Gippsland Shire are overwhelmingly in favour of the development. Most of the remainder of the population oppose it.

For example, the boss of the subcontractors working on the beach this week was a bloke Ms Parker knows well who looked out for her in the surf when she was just a girl. ''It's very hard to look them in the eyes in the street now,'' she said.

The new boat ramp will replace a 40-year-old one. In 2009, then planning minister Justin Madden allowed the development, despite an independent panel he appointed concluding that it would deter tourists and was unsafe. The panel recommended upgrading the current ramp, which doesn't interfere with the reef or surf break. In 2010, an expert Maritime Safety Victoria panel also advised the state government not to build.

The main lobbyist for the project is Mallacoota businessman and abalone fisherman John Rudge. Last month the ABC revealed strong links between Mr Rudge and other project lobbyists from the lucrative abalone aquaculture export industry. Mr Rudge did not return calls.

The project also had support from former independent MP for Gippsland East Craig Ingram. He and two other independents held the balance of power in a minority Labor government after the 1999 state election.

East Gippsland Shire mayor Mark Reeves said the project would boost tourism and property prices in Mallacoota. ''It's not as if we are building a new Port of Hastings here.''

He said Ms Beachem's actions with her tent were irresponsible. ''Our main aim is to make sure no one gets injured,'' he said.

76 comments

The escalation of this divisive proposal is shameful when mechanisms of governance have all recommended an alternative smaller scale upgrade. The people of Mallacoota and their supporters overwhelmingly do not want this project to proceed. Wider social outrage at this development and farcical community consultation processes is needed. To protest is to demand that construction cease and that viable smaller alternatives are pursued. I am very angry at this destruction in a place of rare natural beauty and I support the protest. This development should cease.

Commenter

PeterFisher

Location

Northcote

Date and time

November 16, 2013, 7:57AM

I could not agree more.

Commenter

Pfus

Date and time

November 17, 2013, 1:53AM

If you agree with Peter's comment please sign (and forward) this petition to stop the development: http://tinyurl.com/lseqwud

Commenter

SK

Date and time

November 17, 2013, 7:24AM

You see this time and time again in this State .. Such a shame

Commenter

Paul

Date and time

November 16, 2013, 7:59AM

yep, such a shame that these 'protesters' have scant regard for the law - years of representations to the council and other govts, legal argument etc - and this is going ahead right or wrong. If its so bad there has been over a decade of opportunity to vote out the council that supported it if they had the numbers required in a democracy.

Noooo - these people don't like the decision that our democracy has delivered, so they camouflage themselves and lay in wait for an ordinary man, doing his job with a bulldozer in the hope of manufacturing a Situation or a Disaster or a Near Miss.

Shame. This is faux democracy - instead of abiding by the referees decision, we wave placards with our mates and we make damn sure a sympathetic media is there to publish our demands.

Commenter

frank

Date and time

November 16, 2013, 2:30PM

"main aim is that no one is injured"--then why ignore two safety reports ?

Commenter

peter

Date and time

November 16, 2013, 8:01AM

Trying to be objective here is difficult. More information is needed about the Victorian National Parks Association who say the coastline will be destroyed.

Having watched how the wonderful beaches were destroyed at Surfers Paradise in Queensland (seemingly centuries ago) because the sand dunes were built on and the constant drama occurring there, do Victorians want to help avoid something similar here!

Commenter

EM

Date and time

November 16, 2013, 8:20AM

Of course they failed, that is how the politicians decided things should go. This is what their business masters demanded for their support. Abbott and his lackies are now bending over backwards to dismantle the remaining checks and balances currently in place, it is payback time for mining and other business interests. This is particularly true of any environmental matters from tuna fishing in the Great Australian Bight to mining of the Tarkine. Australia is about to become a free for all money grab by business and it's coming to your backyard.

Commenter

Neil (not on radio)

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

November 16, 2013, 8:25AM

When will people wake up to the fact that neither Labor nor Liberal will represent their interests, or the interests of the environment over big developers?

It's time to start getting some Greens into State Parliament.

Commenter

Riddley Walker

Location

Inland

Date and time

November 16, 2013, 8:32AM

Looking forward to seeing some more independents in the mix too.... Get back to what democracy is really about. Send someone who knows an area and will represent that area's best interests to Parliament, instead of choosing between Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, both of whom are firmly in the pockets of big business.

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